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Wednesday, February 14, 2018

As Simple As Possible (But No Simpler), by Chris Tebbetts

As someone who writes a
lot of middle grade material that is meant to be fast-reading and narratively
compact, this month’s blog theme has gotten me thinking about what goes into the
economy that I try to bring to my writing.

One
of my guiding principles echoes the famous Einstein quote, that “Everything
should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” For me, that means
keeping my prose as clean and focused as I can, while also making sure that I
don’t overdo it with the economy. I don’t want to be stingy with my
storytelling. Rather, I want my stories to be dense and flavorful, and I want
everything I include to be there for a reason. To that end, here are three
things I watch out for:

1) REDUNDANCIES. This can
be deceptively tricky. Some repetitions and unnecessary passages are obvious
when I read through a draft, but others can take a while to uncover. Consider
this line and see if you can spot the redundancy:

“Burton was asleep on the bed, his closed eyes twitching lightly and his arms wrapped around a
pillow."

Do I need to mention the
closed eyes of a sleeping character? I would say probably not. And then, how
about a line like this:

“What happened next
changed everything.”

That might be a
perfectly good setup, depending on the context. On the other hand, am I just
telling my readers something that I’m about to show them, anyway?

Those are just two smallish
examples, but I find that the more deeply I read in the revision phase, the
more redundancy I tend to find.

2) TOO MUCH OFF-CAMERA
TIME. For the style I write in (and, I would say, for middle grade in general),
it’s important to keep the story moving along, and to keep things happening on-camera,
so to speak.

Off-camera moments, as I
think of them, include anything outside the events of the scene itself:
description, internal monologue, narration, flashback, reflection. These are
all important ingredients, but I try to keep my proportions weighted heavily toward
the on-camera side of things. My own rule of thumb is that I only allow myself one
or two off-camera passages per scene or chapter. That doesn’t include
descriptive phrases or momentary asides, but it does include any multi-sentence
diversion from what’s happening in the here and now of the story.

3) STARTING A SCENE OR
STORY AT THE RIGHT MOMENT (AKA, AS LATE AS POSSIBLE). One of the most common
mistakes I see in student manuscripts is over-long beginnings. It’s not
uncommon for me to point out to another writer that their drafted story doesn’t
actually begin until page three, or chapter two, or whatnot. This is often the
result of the author working through her own discovery process, which can mean
putting down a lot of ultimately expendable exposition as she drafts through.
When I write, I try to bear in mind the slippery difference between what I need
to know in order to tell the story, and what my readers need to know in order
to enjoy it.

It’s the same thing with
scenes. Do you ever notice on t.v. how often characters skip the “hello…how are
you” and “goodbye…see you later” parts of their conversations? When you notice,
it can seem unrealistic, but overall, the story moves more gracefully along when the
storyteller lets go of those ultimately static moments. Take a look at a few
scenes you’ve written and ask yourself: where does this scene really
begin? And, while you’re at it, where does it really end?

As a caveat, let me add
that none of this is about hard and fast rules. Context, style, and the
individual needs of a given story all need to be taken into account. But I do
find that deeply combing my manuscript for expendable material can really pay
off. Bit by bit, it may not seem like much, but in the aggregate, it can add up
to a significantly smoother, more engaging reading experience for your audience—and
a better book for you.

I’m sure there are more
examples I could offer, but…well, you know… I have to keep this brief.

Oh, good -- really glad it was helpful! I'm never sure which elements of my own writing practice will/won't translate over to others'. (Either way, I love writing and talking about this stuff, as well as hearing about anyone else's technique, practice, etc.)